Opening a New Business in Ontario? What to Set Up Online, and in What Order

If you're opening a business in Ontario, most of the online setup is cheap and quick. What causes trouble later is doing it in the wrong order: printing signs before checking the name, letting a web designer register the domain in their own account, or leaving the Google listing until opening week when it could have been live for three months already.

This is the order we'd follow, from picking a name to the first month of trading. It's written for local businesses like shops, salons, cafes, clinics and trades. Rules and prices are as of November 2026, and none of it is legal or tax advice.

1. Check the name before you pay for anything

Before anyone designs a logo or prints a sign, check the name in four places on the same day:

• The Ontario Business Registry, which you can search for free to see if a business name is already registered.
• The Canadian trademarks database, including similar spellings and the French version.
• Domain availability, ideally the .ca and the .com.
• The Instagram, Facebook and TikTok handles you'd want.

The trademark search is the one people skip. Registering a name in Ontario doesn't stop anyone else using it. Ontario's own guidance says a sole proprietor's business name "is not protected." Ontario's ownership guide. If someone already holds a trademark on a similar name for a similar business, you could be asked to rebrand after you've paid for the sign, the menus and the vehicle wrap. If anything looks close, a trademark agent can do a proper search.

2. Register the business name

If you're a sole proprietor or partnership trading under anything other than your own legal name, you have to register the name with Ontario. It costs $60 online, the registration is immediate, and it lasts five years. Ontario's fees page.

Put the renewal date in your calendar now. You can renew from six months before expiry until 60 days after. Past that, you have to register again and you get a new Business Identification Number. Ontario Business Registry services.

If you're incorporating, the name comes with the incorporation, and you get a CRA business number automatically. Your accountant can tell you which structure suits you.

3. Register the domain in your own name

This is the step that causes the most trouble a few years later, so it's worth getting right on day one.

Register the domain yourself, in an account you own, with your own email address as the contact. Turn on auto-renew and keep a card on the account that won't expire soon. If a web designer is setting things up for you, they can be added as a user or given access, but the account and the domain should be yours. If it isn't, getting it back can be slow, which we cover in a separate post.

For a .ca, you have to meet CIRA's Canadian presence requirements. A Canadian citizen or permanent resident qualifies, as does a company incorporated in Canada or a province. CIRA's requirements. An Ontario business name registration isn't a separate legal person, so a sole proprietor registers the domain as themselves.

Why it matters that it renews: if a .ca expires, there's a grace period of up to 45 days set by your registrar. After that the domain is deleted and goes into a 30-day redemption period, and during it any websites or email addresses on the domain stop working. CIRA's domain life cycle. For a new business, that means the website and every email address going dark at once because a card expired.

4. Set up business email properly

Use an address on your own domain, like hello@yourbusiness.ca, rather than a free Gmail or Hotmail address. It looks more trustworthy on a quote, and it stays yours if you change email providers.

When it's set up, make sure three DNS records are added: SPF, DKIM and DMARC. They prove your emails really come from you. Gmail has required SPF or DKIM from every sender since February 2024, and needs all three from bulk senders. Gmail's sender guidelines. Microsoft started sending non-compliant mail from high-volume senders to junk in 2025, and says smaller senders benefit from the same setup. Microsoft's announcement.

A new business won't hit the bulk thresholds, but quotes and booking confirmations landing in spam costs you customers just as surely. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 both walk you through it, and it takes about half an hour.

5. Create your Google Business Profile before you open

Most new owners don't know you can do this. Google lets you create a Business Profile before you open, with an opening date up to a year in the future. Once it's verified, the profile shows up on Google 90 days before that date, and after you open it carries a "Recently opened" label. Customers can't leave reviews or photos until you're open. Google's help page on opening dates.

That's three months of people finding you on Maps, seeing your opening date and following you, for nothing.

A few things to plan for:

Verification. Google may ask you to verify by phone, email, a live video call, a recorded video or a postcard. Postcard codes usually arrive within 14 days and expire after 30. Google's verification guide. Video verification is common, and for a storefront it means showing the location and your business name on permanent signage. If your sign isn't up yet, you may have to wait, so get it installed early if you can.

Your address. Google's guidelines say a virtual office isn't eligible. If you work from home or go to customers, like most trades, set yourself up as a service-area business and hide your address. Google's guidelines.

Your name. Use your real business name exactly as it appears on your sign and website. Adding keywords, like "Joe's Plumbing Mississauga Emergency 24/7," breaks Google's rules and can get the profile suspended. Our post on common Google Business Profile mistakes covers the rest.

6. Launch a simple website early, then grow it

You don't need the finished website before you open. You do need something at your domain as early as possible.

A good first version is one page with your name and logo, what you'll offer, where you'll be, your opening date, how to contact you and a way to join an email list. Link it from your Google profile and your social accounts. Google can start finding it months before you open, and anyone who hears about you has somewhere to look.

Before opening day, build it out with the things customers actually look for: services and prices, or at least starting prices, opening hours, a map, real photos of the place and the work, and a clear way to book, order or call. Use real photos rather than stock. People can tell, and they're checking whether you look like a real business they can trust.

If you've connected the site to Google Search Console, Google says that can sometimes make Business Profile verification quicker.

For budget and timing, see our posts on what a business website costs in the GTA and how long a website takes to build. If you're deciding who should build it, agency, freelancer or DIY goes through the trade-offs, and it's worth checking whether you qualify for any Ontario website grants first.

The email list and CASL

A pre-opening email list is one of the most useful things a new business can build, and it's also where people get caught by Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation. People who sign up on your website to hear about the opening have given you express consent, as long as the form says what they're signing up for and who you are.

Implied consent is more limited. According to the CRTC, an inquiry gives you implied consent for six months, and a purchase gives you two years. CRTC guidance on implied consent. Business cards collected at an event or a list someone sells you don't count. Every marketing email needs to say who it's from and include a way to unsubscribe.

7. Sort out HST

You don't have to register for GST/HST straight away. You're a small supplier until your taxable sales pass $30,000, either in a single calendar quarter or over four consecutive quarters, and that total includes associated businesses. If you go over in a single quarter, you charge HST on the sale that took you over. CRA's page on when to register.

You can register voluntarily, and some new businesses do so they can claim back the HST on fit-out, equipment and other start-up costs. Ask your accountant before you decide. Once you're registered, your GST/HST number goes on your invoices and receipts, so add it to your invoice template and any online checkout.

8. Add the legal pages

Every business website that collects names, emails or bookings needs a privacy policy. Under federal privacy law, businesses have to make their privacy practices easy to find and easy to understand, including who is responsible for privacy and how people can access their information or complain. The Privacy Commissioner's guidance. Write it about what your site actually does. Which forms you have, what booking or payment tools you use, and whether you use analytics or ad tracking.

If you take bookings or sell online, add your cancellation, refund and delivery terms too. If you'll have 50 or more employees, Ontario's accessibility rules for websites apply, which we cover in our AODA post.

9. The first month: reviews

When you open, you'll have no reviews, and most people check them. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found 97 percent of consumers read reviews for local businesses and 74 percent look at reviews from the last three months. That's a US survey, but there's no reason to think Ontario customers behave very differently. BrightLocal's 2026 survey.

That second number helps a new business. If most people only look at recent reviews, a handful of good ones from your first weeks counts for more than you might think. Ask every happy customer in your first weeks, in person, with a short link or QR code to your Google profile. Don't offer discounts for reviews and don't review yourself, as both break Google's rules. Our guide to getting Google reviews explains how to ask.

The timeline at a glance

If you'd like help

We build websites for new and established businesses across Mississauga, Brampton and the GTA, and we can set up the domain, email and Google profile in your name alongside it. Get in touch if you're opening soon.